A dealer watches computer monitors at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)2025-12-18T05:26:32Z BANGKOK (AP) World shares were mixed on Thursday after declines for AI stocks dragged the U.S. market to its worst day in nearly a month. Traders were waiting for an update later in the day on U.S. inflation, and on a decision Friday by Japans central bank on interest rates. The Bank of Japan is expected to raise its key rate by 0.25 percentage point to tamp down price pressures, despite a contraction in the July-September quarter. Germanys DAX edged 0.2% higher to 24,007.33, while the CAC 40 in Paris gained 0.4% to 8,114.30. Britains FTSE 100 was up 0.3% to 9,800.00. The future for the S&P 500 gained 0.3%, while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average inched up 0.1%. In Asian trading, Tokyos Nikkei 225 lost 1% to 49,001.50, with technology shares leading the decline. Technology and telecoms giant SoftBank sank 4%. Computer chip maker Tokyo Electron lost 3.2% while chip testing equipment maker Advantest dropped 3.3%. Honda Motor Corp. fell 2.2% after reports said it was suspending production at some plants in Japan and China due to shortages of computer chips. South Koreas Kospi sank 1.5% to 3,994.51, also pulled lower by selling of shares in electronics companies and automakers. LG Electronics declined 3.1%, while Samsung Electronics lost 0.3%. Chinese markets were mixed. Hong Kongs Hang Seng bounced back from early losses to gain 0.1%, closing at 25,498.13. The Shanghai Composite index edged 0.2% higher, to 3,876.37. Stay up to date with the news and the best of AP by following our WhatsApp channel. Follow on In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 was nearly unchanged at 8,588.20. Later Thursday, the U.S. government will report on inflation last month. Economists expect that report to show prices for U.S. consumers continue to rise faster than anyone would like. On Wednesday, the S&P 500 fell 1.2% and the Dow dipped 0.5%. The Nasdaq composite dropped 1.8%.Slightly more stocks rose within the S&P 500 than fell, but they got drowned out by the drops for companies in the artificial-intelligence industry. The sector is being pressured by questions over whether Big Tech companies share prices have shot too high, whether all the investment in AI will be profitable and productive enough to justify the costs, and by worries over stratospheric levels of debt some companies are taking on to pay for it all.Broadcom dropped 4.5%, Oracle fell 5.4% and CoreWeave sank 7.1%. Nvidia, the chip company thats become Wall Streets most influential stock because of its tremendous size, fell 3.8% and was the days heaviest weight on the S&P 500.Power companies that jumped earlier in the year on expectations for stronger demand from electricity-sucking data centers also lost some of their shine. Constellation Energy fell 6.7%.On the winning side of Wall Street were oil companies, after President Donald Trump ordered a blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers into Venezuela. That sent the price of a barrel of benchmark U.S. crude higher by 1.2% to $55.94. just a day after it sank to its lowest level since 2021. Early Thursday, U.S. crude was up 12 cents at $55.93 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, gained 8 cents to $59.76 per barrel. It had climbed 1.3% on Wednesday. Oil prices have been falling for most of this year on expectations that companies are pumping more than enough crude to meet the worlds demand.Netflix added 0.2% after Warner Bros. Discoverys board said it still recommends shareholders approve a buyout offer from the streaming giant for its Warner Bros. business, rather than a competing hostile bid from Paramount Skydance for the entire company. Warner Bros. Discovery fell 2.4%, while Paramount Skydance dropped 5.4%. In other dealings early Thursday, the U.S. dollar rose to 155.92 Japanese yen from 155.70 yen. The euro slipped to $1.1727 from $1.1743. ELAINE KURTENBACH Based in Bangkok, Kurtenbach is the APs business editor for Asia, helping to improve and expand our coverage of regional economies, climate change and the transition toward carbon-free energy. She has been covering economic, social, environmental and political trends in China, Japan and Southeast Asia throughout her career. twitter mailto RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site